If you are familiar with anime and old school type rpg, you’ll slide right into Hyperdimension Neptunia Mk2 like a comfy pair of shoes. This is a cartoony and colorful game that easily back and forth from sexy anime type cutscenes to cutesy dialogue bits to a very retro cool 8 bit map. There’s a little something for everyone.The storyline in Hyperdimension Neptunia Mk2 is, I’m told, a continuation from the first game (which I have not yet played). Gamindustri is in trouble, and the CPUs who are tasked with protecting it have long been captured. It is up to their sisters (known as the CPU Candidates) and an ever-growing group of friends to save the CPUs, and ultimately….the world. The whole thing is a very obvious play on the battle between game companies and pirates, and it’s quite cleverly done, in my opinion. The landscape often contains bits of gaming flotsam like wii remotes, names of cities (like LaStation and LeanBox) allude to consoles, and the evil crime organization Arfoire (which hands out free game chips to citizens to pull them over to the dark side) are the pirates. Throughout the game, different perspectives are given, such as when one of your characters argues with a boss who believes pirating is okay because some kids can’t afford the games. A rather heavy topic to address in a game like this, but it doesn’t overwhelm the game or feel preachy, for the most part.Hyperdimension Neptunia Mk2 really plays out a lot like your favorite old school rpg. You travel around an old school map, visiting cities and dungeons, more of which open up as the story progresses. The cities all contain a shop, where you can buy and sell various items, weapons, etc. for whichever characters are currently in your party. There are a lot of weapons and armor available, with more and more appearing as you advance in the game. Some may increase your HP or range of motion, some may give you defense against certain types of attacks, etc., and so you’ll have to make tough decisions as to what your priorities are for each character. As you collect more members of your team, you’ll find that keeping them all optimally equipped means a whole lot of cash. It’s worth it to keep all characters leveled and equipped though, as even when you aren’t playing them they can partner up to others and add benefits to their combat.Item synth allows you to create your items, provided you have all the ingredients and the recipe. There is also a guild, where you can accept quests. These generally involve killing a certain number of a certain type of monster for a reward, and can be repeated as many times as you like. For the most part, you don’t even have to go out of your way to do it, and there’s no time limit, so it’s nice to just accept all the quests and just go about your business as usual while you rake in rewards (and game shares). Finally, each city contains Chirper, which is a play on twitter. Members from your group and random citizens chirp about noodles, or games, or whatever, and it’s mostly pretty boring. But you still need to visit it often, as certain events will pop up that will allow you to grow the relationship between your characters or pick up items.Dungeons are where you get to fight. Each of them contain set types of monsters (which you can see if you hover over it on the map), and only one save point. This is where you’ll do your level grinding, pick up items, and often where you run across bosses. The map indicates where you need to go next with a flashing red “Event”, but you can revisit previous dungeons whenever you like.As you begin Hyperdimension Neptunia Mk2, you play as IF and Compa. You have come to the Gamindustri Graveyard to rescue the trapped CPUs. As you encounter the enemy who has captured them, you realize how ill-prepared you are for the task and are forced to flee after rescuing only NepGear, the CPU Candidate for Planeptune. The three of you return to Planeptune and come up with a plan to enlist aid from other CPU Candidates to save the CPUs from the clutches of Arfoire.One thing you’ll notice right away in the opening Graveyard scene…..the CPU’s seem to have forgotten most of their clothes….oh, dear…..and there are some pretty suggestive comments right from the start. When I saw the “M” rating on Hyperdimension Neptunia Mk2, I wasn’t sure what to expect, particularly as the very cartoony nature of the game doesn’t seem to lend itself to anything too terribly bad. There is some mild swearing, and some very skimpy outfits, but both are not the norm in the game. In fact, other than the cutscenes, the characters are mostly wearing cutesy outfits that keep them well covered. There are some very suggestive comments which will likely have you giggling at times, and some suggestive noises referring to off-screen events, but nothing overt. It isn’t my job to assign ratings, but I would much rather have my teens playing this than a game like God of War of Assassin’s Creed (both of which carry the same rating). Since when is sexy talk on the same level as slashing throats?Final Thoughts:Hyperdimension Neptunia Mk2 is a fun and very entertaining game in an old school rpg fashion. The cartoony characters, loads of level grinding, and epic quests all take me right back to my teenage years playing Final Fantasy. There is a great variety of weapons and items for all kinds of character customization, a wide variety of enemies, and a pretty clever storyline. Throw in upwards of 25 hours of gameplay (depending on your playing style on how much you like to grind) and you have a whole lot of game here.